Wire used in manufacturing operations, such for example as making small coiled springs, is fabricated and shipped in large coils typically weighing 1,000 pounds each. The coils are not wound on reels or spools but are typically wound with open cores which may include a paperboard sleeve. The coils are bound in their toroidal configuration with a number of circumferentially spaced metal straps. Handling such coils, which are known in the trade as "reel-less cores", is difficult. Typically, pallets are used into which the tines of a fort lift truck can be inserted. Special rigging, however, is required if the coil is to be lowered, for example, into a hopper or a spring forming machine. Such devices can include grappling hooks, which are apt to damage the coil or its straps, or pressure inflatable bladder devices to grip the inside of the core but which are vulnerable to tearing or to loss of pressure and hence sudden failure at unexpected moments.
The present invention has for its object to provide a device for gripping heavy coils of wire in reel-less core form so that they can be handled from above by any standard lifting device such for example as a chain fall, block and tackle or the raised tines of a fort lift.